Sound is very low when playing Netflix movies

Hi robpeavyhouse,

·         Did you make both your Silverlight player and Speakers' volume to the max?

You can increase the volume level by checking the Loudness Equalization check box (turning it on) in the Sound Panel.

You can either open the Sound Panel from the Control Panel or by Right Clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray and select Playback Devices. Follow the steps:

1)    From the Sound Playback menu select Speakers, Properties

2)    Select the Speakers Properties Enhancements Tab

3)    Uncheck ALL sound effects but Check Loudness Equalization. Check the option "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device."

4)    Click Apply and OK.

You can also contact Netflix support for more help and information.

Hi, I wanted to give my solution to this problem because the above didn't quite solve it for me. I hope this helps some poor soul with their laptops burning their chests, silencing everything in the house, forgoing crunchy snacks... even turning on the CC.

The First thing you should do is check all your levels - this includes your TV/amp (if your PC is connected to such devices, you should check these first). You've probably done that, but here's 3 quick steps to check off in the PC before I get to mysolution:

1. There is a Volume control located on the Netflix video itself. Click on it - turn it up.
2. Go to the task bar, near the clock, and find a similar icon. Right click on that and select 'Open Volume Mixer'. Make sure all of the slide bars are all the way up.
3. If the Icon is not there for whatever reason, left click to open the start button and type 'volume' and hit enter. This will open the option to display the icon on the task bar, then go back and do #2.

Now that we know your volume levels are all up, lets try the solution that worked for me:

1. Right click again on the speaker icon, this time select 'Playback Devices'.
2. Click your default device, aka what your playing the sound through, then click on 'Properties'.
3. Select the 'Enhancements' tab and make sure you check 'Loudness Equalization', just as Sandeep Ghatuary has suggested.
4. From the list of options also check 'Equalizer' or 'Enable Sound Equalizer'. Then click on 'More Settings'. This should bring up a bunch of slide bars. move them all to the top, but don't close the menu.
5. Play your Netflix video - be careful it may be very loud. I recommend for the sake of your speakers and nerves you turn the volume in Netflix down a third or so. From here, adjust the sliders in the Equalizer and in the Netflix video itself to find a good level. It may prove that having all those at their max settings works best for you, but be cautious. 

Enjoy the show.

TIP

You may notice that since this affects all sounds coming our of your playback device/speakers other things are abnormally loud. You'll have to go back into the settings and uncheck 'Equalizer' - this will re-enable the default levels. Go back and recheck the setting whenever you need a volume boost.